Seph had exchanged a few pleasantries with Aunt Susan and was just reaching the door when Ricky's squawking voice cut through the air. He burst through the door, shouting, "Mum! Charlie says his 'wolf' bit him!"
Aunt Susan paused, a look of confusion crossing her face. "A wolf?" she said, bewildered. "Where on earth would Charlie get a wolf?"
"That one!" Ricky insisted. "Charlie's uncle brought it back from somewhere else, said it was for Charlie to play with. But Charlie was messing with it just now, and it bit him! He's bleeding!"
Seph had been about to step away, intending to keep out of it, but the word 'wolf' stopped her in her tracks. Wolves weren't common in this city, and a prickle of unease ran down her spine. Something didn't feel right. She peered through the crack of the open door opposite and saw that the neighbour's door stood wide open, and just outside it sat a sturdy iron cage.
Inside the cage was a grey animal. It resembled a dog in shape but possessed a wildness and ferocity far beyond that of any ordinary hound. Its fur, a mottled grey, seemed to shimmer with a faint silver light in the setting sun, giving it a peculiar, almost sinister look. Its ears were sharply pointed, tipped with black, and its eyes – too sharp, too wary, and unnervingly intelligent – made it stand out utterly.
Seph found herself drawn a few steps closer, and only then did she see that the 'wolf' was in a terrible state. Its body bore numerous obvious scars, some still oozing thin trails of blood. A few drops of dark red blood stained the ground below the cage. Its muzzle looked as though it had been burned; its whiskers were gone, and its usually pricked ears drooped strangely, half-yellow and half-black, as if they'd been horribly singed by fire.
Charlie, the very boy Ricky had mentioned, had a bandage wrapped around his hand; the faint outline of claw marks were visible beneath, clear evidence of the 'wolf's' bite. But Charlie, it seemed, had learned nothing from his injury. He was holding a thin steel needle and was savagely poking it through the bars at the 'wolf' inside. The needle jabbed into the animal's flank, the tip instantly wet with blood.
Yet, the 'wolf' remained unnervingly silent. It didn't howl or struggle, merely curled itself tighter, its eyes fixed with terrifying intensity on Charlie. Whenever Charlie's hand came near, it would lash out with lightning speed, its paws armed with claws that Seph could now see were equipped with wicked, backward-facing barbs, looking capable of tearing flesh from bone.
Just then, a woman emerged from the house – presumably Charlie's mother. Seeing Charlie's actions, she let out a sharp cry of outrage and snatched the needle from his hand.
Charlie, startled by her voice, began to cry loudly. In the ensuing chaos, Seph saw the woman deliver a sharp kick that sent the cage tumbling over. The poor 'wolf' was thrown about inside the tumbling metal, before righting itself and silently, grimly, scrambling to its feet. It turned its gaze onto the bars, its eyes now burning with a look of desperate, suicidal rage, and began tearing furiously at the iron with its teeth.
Fearing she might get caught up in the escalating scene, Seph quickly slipped away during the confusion. While she knew that hunting wild animals occasionally happened in this area, witnessing such blatant cruelty inflicted upon an animal left her feeling deeply unsettled